Hellenic Bloodlines: Know Thyself (Book 4 of the Thea Walker Series)
by aprilmarie8235
Summary: After the death of Thea's friend Oscar, she found out that she had been adopted so Thea, George, Jax, and Valentina head to Brazil to chase the only lead given them: an old woman who had claimed to be Thea's great-grandmother in a vision. When they arrive, this woman turns out to be more difficult to find than expected, and what Thea does find out will change her perspective on eve
1. Chapter 1: Thea

_May 1, 2000, London Ministry of Magic. _

Unspeakable: That cannot be expressed in words, something too horrific to ever be told. Love. Death. Power. Time. Prophecy. Each a mystery begging to be solved. Thea remembered when she had been wide-eyed and enchanted by the answers becoming an Unspeakable promised, for it was the second definition she had believed in, the second definition that had started it all, but it would be the first that made her break her vow.

It was a Monday morning, like any other, when it all started. Thea headed into the love chamber, where she was immediately hit with the scent of amortentia. To her, it smelled of lavender, rain, and a mix of something sweet and salty. It was bubbling merrily in the fountain at the centre of the room as if it was calling to her. The potion was made to smell like whatever attracted a person, though Thea's limited experience with relationships made that difficult to validate one way or another.

Shaking her head, Thea turned away from the fountain to head for her desk in the far corner of the room. She wanted to focus on the results of the brain scans she had done with the head of Cambridge's neuroscience department, Edward Calhoun. As Thea flipped through the pages, she noticed a pattern. Individuals that were either in love or had a child and were thinking about their loved one showed activity in the parts of the brain that usually lit up when exposed to other pleasure-seeking activities or topics. What was more, when she and Calhoun had introduced negative stimuli to deliberately agitate participants (as evident by a first scan), they were able to switch it back to the pleasure-seeking centre by directing conversation around their loved one.

"Hoo!"

Thea started, looking up to see her pygmy owl Oreo sitting there. "Oreo, when did you get here?"

The tiny bird stuck out her leg, and Thea carefully removed the letter, recognizing Jax's untidy scrawl as she did so.

_Thea, _

_Hope you've been well. Africa is amazing as always, but I miss home and you. I'll be making my way back to London-and will probably arrive shortly after you receive my letter. I found a few things that you might be interested in, but I'm mainly writing due to an intriguing owl I received the other day. It was an invitation to an expo-at your department. I thought it a bit odd since you can't talk about what it is you do so what's with the expo? What are you and the other Unspeakables up to?_

That was a good question. Knowing Liam, it couldn't be anything good. Thea set Oreo on her shoulder and headed out of the Love Chamber, relocking the door with a flick of her wand.

The main atrium of the department was deserted, not that she expected it to be otherwise. Thea held out her wand. "Mors revelare."

A door popped open, and Thea moved into a dimly lit, rectangular room and descended steep stone steps toward the other Unspeakables. Liam stood in the centre of the group with his baggy jeans and spiky hair that screamed trying too hard.

As expected, she found them congregated around the stone dais, its black veil swaying eerily in some nonexistent breeze. Thea shivered, before shaking it off and turning toward her boss. "Liam?"

Liam ignored her. "Let's see what she can do. House-elf!" Liam grinned. "Go into the dais, and then apparate back out."

Thea followed Liam's gaze in horror to see a house-elf standing in front of him. Did he really mean to send her through the veil? No one ever came back from that.

"But Zelda doesn't want to..."

"Elf! I ordered you into the dais!" Liam barked out the order for a second time.

"I is not wanting to." But the elf was slammed to the floor by some invisible force that seemed intent on dragging her into the dais, forcing her to obey Liam's command. Zelda grabbed at the floor, but there was nothing to hold onto. It was only her will keeping her from being dragged in completely.

"Liam!" Thea repeated, more urgently this time, but Liam continued to ignore her.

"House-elf, you are bound by your duty to obey your master, and I am your master," said Liam, "so you will go into the dais and then apparate out."

"No please no please no please," the elf pleaded, managing to grab hold of a throw rug to slow the pull to the dais and certain death.

"Liam!" Thea was getting more frantic now. She had to stop this! But how? Short of putting her hands on Liam-which would surely get her fired-she couldn't force him to stop.

Apparently tired of waiting for the house-elf to follow his order, Liam picked her up by her ankles and threw her into the dais. Her screams went silent. She didn't come back out.

Liam shrugged. "I guess house-elves can't come back from the dead." He made a note on his clipboard and turned as if to speak to one of the other Unspeakables, but then he spotted Thea. "Oh, Thea, did you want something?"

"Oh, um..." Thea had been standing there, frozen, staring at the dais. Had he really just...she shook her head. It wasn't as if she had actually thought he had changed. She was pretty sure he wasn't capable of changing. She forced her gaze back to Liam and the entire reason she had ventured out here. "I wanted to ask about the expo."

Liam shook his head. "That's nothing for you to worry your pretty little head about. Just run along back to the love room..."

"Liam, it is something for me to worry about," Thea interrupted him, careful to keep her voice calm and even. "I am a member of this department, and if you are having an expo, I should not only know about it but be in attendance."

"Fine," said Liam dismissively. "We're raising money- we want to go deeper into our experiments into death, but that requires funding, equipment. If you can find an investor for us, you are more than welcome to join us, but otherwise, you should stick to what suits you." He gestured towards the door, the implication being that she should stick to the love room and leave Liam and the others alone.

Thea sighed. "I'm going to go take a walk." She needed to clear her head. She needed to get out of there.

She didn't wait for Liam's reaction, but headed for the exit, pulling out her wand as she went. Oreo shuffled a bit on her shoulder, and Thea stroked the tiny owl's breast. "Sorry, Oreo," she murmured. "Exitus revelare." One of the doors popped open, and Thea walked through it, turning back to point her wand at the now open door. "Exitus celare." The doors spun again, and Thea headed over to the lifts.

She took a few deep breaths as she waited but nearly jumped out of her skin when the lift clanged to a halt in front of her. Oreo fluffed her feathers but otherwise didn't react. Thea glanced up at the bird, and nearly missed the lift in her distraction.

"Get a grip, Thea," she muttered to herself, stepping inside. It was lighter on the upper levels, but that didn't ease the weight Thea felt over what had happened, nor the fact that she hadn't been able to stop it.

The lift clanged onto the main level, and standing just outside the lift was a slender witch with bushy brown hair, holding pamphlets with a house-elf on the front. Thea had seen the other witch around the ministry, but knew Hermione more by reputation, for her contributions during the war.

"Do you want a pamphlet?" Hermione asked.

Thea blinked at her, her gaze shifting from Hermione's face to the pamphlet and back again. "Sure," she said, accepting one and shoving it into her pocket with Jax's letter. Then she headed outside and disapparated with her owl.


	2. Chapter 2: Jax

Jax watched as the girls left, and when George was about to follow them, he grabbed the other wizard's arm. "I really don't want to find out what they're saying about us."

George looked over at him with a chuckle. "What they're saying about you, you mean. I don't know Valentina very well, but I'm pretty sure she intends to grill Thea about you."

Jax narrowed his eyes. "I wish she wouldn't-not that Thea will tell her much." He started out of the lobby-the girls should have had time to get to their room by now.

"You seem awfully confident considering that girls talk. You know," George continued, "if you don't like Valentina, you should just tell her instead of playing games."

Jax put the key into the lock at their room. "What and ruin this vacation?" He pushed open the door and headed over to one of the beds to set his bag down.

"Is that what you think this is?"

Jax whirled around to face him. No, this wasn't a vacation. This wasn't for fun-it was torture for him. Couldn't any of them see it? No, of course not. It never was about Jax. He sighed. "No, it's not a vacation, but this is too important to Thea, and she needs us all here-Valentina included. Besides, it's not that I don't like her-I just don't trust her. She lied, and it's going to take time for me to get over that-no matter how interested I am in her."

George closed the door and headed over to the empty bed nearest the door, setting down his bag. "I still think you need to talk to her," he said quietly as he pulled out a change of clothes. "Because you're wrong-I think Thea will talk to Valentina. Maybe not at first, but she will want to help." George headed into the bathroom to change, leaving Jax alone in the room with his thoughts.

A short while later, they headed over to the girls' room. Thea opened the door as soon as they knocked and let them in. "Valentina should be finishing up in the shower," she told them.

"Are you feeling better?" George asked her.

She offered him a small smile, one that met her eyes. "Much." She gave him a brief kiss on the lips, and Jax shook his head.

"I'll wait outside," he mumbled and headed out the door, closing it behind him. It wasn't that George was a bad guy-he wasn't. But, Jax had watched Thea fall apart after everything from Liam, and that was when they had become family.

Before he could contemplate that any further, the door opened, and Valentina stepped outside.

She was dressed in jeans and a white tee shirt, her dark hair pulled up into a messy bun. A part of him was drawn to her, even if he was still angry about the lies. She was beautiful and exotic-everything that he had always wanted, but she had also lied...pretended to be someone she wasn't.

"Hey," Valentina said simply. "I say we give the lovebirds another moment, and then head out. It's just a short walk."

Their destination was apparently just a short walk from their hotel, but Jax found himself wishing that the walk could be longer. They were going to Valentina's parents' house. Valentina had originally been from this neighbourhood but she had moved away long ago, while her parents and siblings had stayed. God help him. He was about to meet her family, and he could barely handle her, let alone the entire Nova clan.

Thea touched a hand to his arm, coming into pace with him. "It will be okay," she whispered.

Jax could only nod. Thea was the only reason he was doing this. After they had defeated the Elite, they had found out by way of letters left by a childhood friend of Thea's-Valentina's professor-that Thea had been adopted. Her great-grandmother had apparently lived in this village for a while-at least while Professor Silva had been growing up. She was their only lead to figuring out where Thea had come from, and they needed Valentina's family to help them find her. God help him.

They were on the outskirts of town now, and the road was getting steeper.

"How much further?" George asked.

"Just up this hill," Valentina assured them, and soon, they were walking up an old stone driveway. The yard (something the houses in town didn't have) was overgrown with weeds and rocks, but in such a way that gave it character rather than making it look unkempt.

The stone house overlooked the hill and the rest of the village. Valentina led them up a few stone steps, leading them to the front door, where she didn't bother knocking, rather just opened it and led them inside. Despite the old-fashioned exterior, they stepped into a modern kitchen that opened up into a small dining room.

In the kitchen, standing over a modern looking stove was a middle-aged woman with the same dark skin as Valentina had and long dark hair.

"Hi, Mae," said Valentina, leaning in to give the older woman a kiss on the cheek.

"Valentina!" the woman exclaimed, pulling Valentina into a big hug. When she released her, Valentina stepped back.

"These are the friends I told you about. Jax, Thea, and George." Valentina pointed them out in turn. "This is my mom Diana," she told them.

"It's nice to meet you," Thea said politely, which was more than either Jax or George were apparently able to do. Thea offered her hand to shake, but Diana pulled her into a hug.

Oh, this was going to be fun. Jax couldn't help narrowing his eyes as Valentina tried not to laugh. Did he say fun? He meant torture.

Diana hugged them each in turn and then led them over to the dining room table, where a man sat, with paler skin and greying hair, along with a teenage boy, whose skin was a similar color to Valentina's.

"This is my dad Eric, and my brother Daniel," Valentina told them. "Jax, George, and Thea," she told her dad and brother, as her dad reached out to shake hands.

Daniel, however, was focused on Thea. He offered his hand, but when Thea accepted it to shake, he held on for a second. "Thea, huh? A pretty name for a pretty girl."

"Daniel, she's 23," said Valentina through narrowed eyes.

Daniel released Thea's hand. "Hey, I'm 17. I'm legal."

"She also has a boyfriend," George warned him, taking Thea's hand.

Thea rolled her eyes. "He's just a kid," Jax heard her mutter to him, but she didn't release George's hand as the pair moved to sit at the places offered to them.

"Thea's a big girl-she can take care of herself."

Jax jumped when he heard Valentina's voice behind him, even though it was only a whisper. He turned to face her.

"That is, unless you think my kid brother is an actual threat," she teased him, her eyes sparkling with amusement.

"Hey, does this mean that Jax is your boyfriend?" Daniel asked Valentina, and Jax had the pleasure of seeing her amusement wiped right off of her face.

Unfortunately, Jax's amusement was short-lived-Valentina recovered quickly. "Jax is a friend," she told him, looking up as three more people came into the room.

A woman of about 25, with shoulder-length dark hair came in carrying a small child in a dress, along with a dark-skinned man of about the same age. "Sorry, Allie has decided that she hates dresses now," said the woman. "She's been trying to pull it off as soon as I tried to put it on her." Indeed, the little girl was pulling at the fabric as they spoke. "Allie, stop that!"

Valentina focused on the little girl. "Don't I get a hello hug?" Valentina asked, holding her arms out to the little girl.

"Aunt Val!" The little girl all but leapt into Valentina's arms, forgetting all about the dress.

"I've missed you," Valentina told the little girl, before focusing on the adults. "This is my sister Jessica, her husband Ryan, and of course, Allie, their daughter. Jessica and Ryan have an apartment in the basement."

Once introductions were complete, they all sat down to eat. The food was some sort of bean stew with meat stirred in. It was served with rice, orange slices, fried bananas, and what looked like collard greens. Jax didn't recognize the dish, but with traveling around the world as much as he did, he had few qualms about eating new foods.

Thea, however, was slightly less adventurous. Thea was mostly eating from the sides on her plate, but had not as of yet been brave enough to try the stew.

"It's called feijoada," said Valentina, focusing her explanation on Thea. "It's basically a stew made from black beans and pork. It's good," she assured her.

Warily, Thea took a bite of the stew. Jax could tell by her tightlipped smile that she didn't care for it, but he hoped that Valentina didn't see through her deception. He knew his friend and knew she was trying to be polite, but he also knew she wasn't a fan of stews or heavier fare such as this in general-it was in no way personal.

It wasn't until after dinner that they brought up why they had come. "So, Mae, Papai...there's a reason why we came to Brazil," Valentina spoke up. Allie had fallen asleep, so Jessica had taken her back downstairs, but everyone else was scattered throughout the chairs in the room, while Jax sat with Thea and George on the couch, and Valentina perched on the arm of the couch next to him.

"Professor Silva, after he died, he left a letter for both Thea and me, and it was his wish that we come here."

Diana shook her head, brushing that off. "We're not bothered by the reason that you came, we're just glad that you're here."

Valentina bit her lip, and Jax thought he saw her eyes narrow. Was she annoyed by this?

"Professor Silva sent us here for answers about something," Valentina explained. "He wanted me to help Thea find something." She nodded encouragingly to Thea to pick up the story.

Thea swallowed and shifted in her seat. She prepared to speak, but George took her hand, and she nodded gratefully, before turning back towards Valentina's family. "Professor Silva had found out that I was adopted. He didn't know anything about anyone in my birth family except for my great-grandmother, who he had met. He said that she lives...or at least lived somewhere near here. We were hoping you could point us in the right direction so we might find her."

At first Diana and Eric just looked at each other before Eric finally spoke. "I think I know who you are talking about, but I haven't seen her around in a long time. She lives on the outskirts of town, not far from here. Ryan can take you out in the morning."

But Ryan was shaking his head. "Jose's taking me out on his boat tomorrow. We'll hopefully catch some cod for supper."

"Oh, that's right; I forgot about that," said Eric with a frown.

"I can do it," said Daniel, perking up.

"I don't know if that's a good idea," said Valentina.

"Nonsense," said Diana. "You're just taking a walk out to the neighbors. What could go wrong?"


	3. Chapter 4: Thea

Thea woke up early the next morning to a soft tapping on the door. She sat up, pushing back the light blankets as Valentina snored softly in the other bed. There was another knock at the door, this time a little louder.

"Just a second," Thea called out, loud enough that hopefully whoever it was had heard her, but quietly enough that it would also not wake up Valentina.

She padded over toward the door, combing her fingers through her blonde curls and momentarily debated grabbing her robe, but she was wearing shorts and a tank top, so she decided that that was passable no matter who was at the door. She checked the peep hole, and standing outside the door was Daniel Nova-Valentina's brother. The one who had flirted with her at dinner. On second thought, she needed that robe.

It took her a moment to find it and put it on, and then she headed back over to the door and opened it.

"Good morning," he said, his face lighting up at seeing her. "I came to show you the old lady's house."

Thea blinked at him. She might have been an early riser, but she definitely wasn't a perky one. "I thought we were supposed to meet at your house-at like 9 o'clock or something. It's only," she blinked when she saw the time on the clock, "6:30."

"I know, but I thought you would want to get started early," he told her eagerly. "I brought stuff for a picnic lunch." He lifted up a basket to show her, before his grin faded. "Did I do something wrong?"

Thea shook her head. "No, but I'm gonna go wake up your sister," said Thea, turning to head back into the room.

"Wait," said Daniel. "Maybe you could just keep me company until she wakes up? She's grumpy in the morning, especially when she's woken up."

Thea offered him a tight-lipped smile. "I really do need to wake up your sister. Please wait here." And she closed the door before heading over to Valentina's bed. "Valentina," she said softly.

No response.

"Valentina," Thea said louder this time, and when she didn't get a response, she gently pushed on Valentina's shoulder. "Valentina!"

Finally, Valentina blinked her eyes open. "Thea, why are you waking me up at..." she blinked at the clock, "the god-awful hour of 6:30?"

"Because your brother is at the door. He wants me to keep him company while we wait for you and the guys to wake up."

Valentina rolled over. "So why don't you keep him company then?"

Thea narrowed her eyes. "No. I don't mind him when we're in a group, but he has a crush on me, so it's awkward, and I don't want to lead him on."

Valentina rolled back over to look at her. "So, tell him that you're not interested."

Thea shook her head, putting her hands on her hips. "I think you and George made that clear last night."

Valentina sat up, leaning back on her outstretched hands. "So, what's the problem then?"

Thea sighed. "The problem is that I'm not comfortable being alone with him for an undetermined amount of time. He's your brother, so you get up and deal with him. I'm gonna go get dressed." She headed over to her suitcase and pulled out shorts and another t-shirt while Valentina headed over to the door.

"You're early," Valentina told him as Thea headed for the bathroom to change.

"Did I do something to upset Thea?" Thea could hear Daniel asking his sister.

"Well, you did maybe come on a bit strong," Valentina told him as Thea switched her shirts. "She said it made her uncomfortable that you have a crush on her."

"I know that she's older and has a boyfriend. It's just that she is so pretty and doesn't look like the girls here. I was hoping she could be my...what is the word? Amiga?"

"Friend?" Valentina asked with a chuckle. "I think if you tone it down a bit, stop singling her out so much, Thea would be happy to be your friend."

By now, Thea had finished switching to jean shorts, but she was a little wary of coming out of the bathroom. She didn't want to let on that she had overheard their conversation, and it was an awkward point to come out for.

Luckily, Daniel started asking questions that Thea could only guess were related to treasure hunting, so Thea came out.

"Well, I need to get dressed now," Valentina told them. "Why don't you two go wake the guys up?"

Thea knew that Valentina was only suggesting it so that Thea wouldn't have to be alone with Daniel. Thea might have felt better about the situation after overhearing their conversation, but it was a relief to not be left alone with him all the same-plus, if they were going to be making the trek out there this early, they would need to wake up George and Jax anyway.

Thea nodded. "Let's go," she told Daniel and headed for the door.

As expected, he followed, and they both headed over to the room to their right. Thea knocked.

After a moment, the door opened, and Jax stood there with messy hair and sleep in his eyes. He took in the two of them. "Why on earth are the two of you at the door at..." he checked his watch, "6:45? Where's Valentina?" _And why exactly are you at the door with her brother? He has a crush on you. I'd think you wouldn't want to be alone with him. _

"Getting dressed," Thea told him, narrowing her eyes at the thoughts she could hear. "Apparently our plans got moved up." She looked over at Daniel. "Why don't you fill Jax in? I'll wake up George." And she stepped past Jax, ignoring his incredulous look and headed over to George's bed.

She sat on the edge while Daniel recounted for Jax what he had already told Thea. Thea gently pushed on George's shoulder. "George?" she said softly.

After a moment, he blinked his eyes open. "Hey," he said, offering her a small, sleepy smile, before turning his gaze to see Jax talking with Daniel. He turned his gaze back to Thea. "What's going on?"

"Our plans got moved up for this morning." She stood. "I'll get everyone some breakfast while you guys get ready."

Thea turned to go, but George grabbed her hand and pulled her back down beside him. He was sitting up now, and he leaned in to kiss her gently on the lips. "I'll see you in a few minutes," he told her, and she couldn't help the sappy grin that she was sure was on her face.

"I'll see you," she told him and headed for the door.

"I go with?" Daniel asked hopefully.

Thea shook her head. Payback. "You know, Jax was telling me last night that he had wanted to talk to you-find out more about Brazilian culture. You'd be doing him a huge favor if you stayed and talked to him."

Daniel grinned. "I'd be happy to."

"Give me just one second, Daniel," Jax said through clenched teeth, and he followed Thea out. "What are you doing?" he whispered.

"Well, you're worried about me being alone with him, wanting to protect me from him," Thea explained. "And honestly, I don't really want to be alone with him anyway, so I'm giving you what you want."

"This isn't exactly what I had in mind."

Thea shook her head, trying not to laugh. "Come on. You always like learning about new cultures, and maybe if you learn a little about Brazilian culture, it will help you get closer to Valentina. Besides, if I really wanted to mess with you, I would just tell him about you and Valentina."

Jax tensed. "You wouldn't."

"No, probably not," Thea admitted. "But he's still not going with me." She headed away then, leaving Jax standing just outside his hotel room in his robe and boxers.


	4. Chapter 5: George

George was already going through his bag when Jax came back in.

"You know that her idea of breakfast is yogurt and fruit, right?" Jax pointed out. "So, we might want to hurry."

George just laughed. "For you maybe it will be fruit and granola, but she knows that not everyone eats the way that she does." He headed into the bathroom. He didn't know what was going on between Thea and Jax, but he wasn't going to get into the middle of it. Helping Jax would likely just land him in trouble with her instead, and things were good now-had been since they stopped the Elite, and he didn't want to mess with that.

By the time Thea had gotten back, George was coming out of the shower, dressed in shorts and a tee-shirt. Valentina was with her, and they were each carrying plates of grilled ham and cheese sandwiches and a fourth plate that had a bowl on it with what looked like some sort of fruit, yogurt, and granola concoction. "I told Jax you wouldn't be making all of us eat fruit and yogurt," he teased her, taking the plate of sandwiches from her. "Is that for Jax?" he asked, referring to the bowl on the remaining plate. He knew that it wasn't, but his comment was as much to make fun of Jax as it was to flirt with her.

"No," she told him with a laugh. "Valentina has his."

Valentina set one of the plates of sandwiches on the dresser, before offering her brother a sandwich off of her plate. He took it and began to munch on it, watching Thea, George, and Jax with some interest.

Jax grabbed his plate and took a bite of one of the sandwiches.

"I hope you're not planning to go like that," Valentina told him.

Jax made a face at her and set down the plate before grabbing an outfit out of his suitcase at random. He turned to head into the bathroom, but hesitated, turning back to grab his plate to take it with him.

"Do I want to know why you're mad at him?" George asked Thea.

Thea shook her head. "No, probably not."

George nodded at that. If it continued on for much longer, he would push to find out what it was, but otherwise, it was better if they just worked it out for themselves.

By the time Jax came out of the bathroom, everyone had finished their breakfast, and it was time for them to head out.

While it had been a little bit of a walk to get to Valentina's parents' house from the town, it was even further to get to the old woman's house. George kept a close eye on Thea as they walked, worried that the heat might get to her as it had the day before.

"I'm fine," she told him, softly. "Yesterday, I was dressed for winter and arrived via a spinning portkey, to summer weather. Today, I'm dressed for summer, and there's no portkey. I'm fine, really."

George relaxed a bit after that, but still kept an eye out just in case.

A little over a half hour after they set out, they arrived at a small house on the outskirts of town. The house was orange with brown shutters and turrets and plants and weeds grown up wild all around it.

"It is here. This is the house," Daniel told them.

George looked over at Thea. They all did. If Daniel was right, then this was her great-grandmother's house. It only made sense that she be the one to knock.

George took her hand and gave it a squeeze. "We're all right here with you."

Thea took a breath and nodded, before stepping up to knock on the door. There was no answer. She knocked again. She knocked three times before stepping back. "I don't there's anyone here."

"By the looks of this place, there hasn't been anyone here in a long time," said Jax.

But they couldn't just leave. George turned to Thea. "Why don't you leave a note? That way, when she comes back, she can come find you."

"That's a great idea," said Jax, reaching into his pockets and pulling out a small notebook and a pen. "Old habits die hard," he said with a shrug.

Thea accepted the paper and pen and began to write. Once she had finished, she folded the note and slid it halfway under the doormat so that it would be seen. "I guess now we just go," she said softly, dragging her feet.

George put an arm around her as they went. "It will be okay. She'll respond-or we'll find another lead." He shifted to take her hand instead of having his arm around her as Valentina caught up to them.

"I may have one," said Valentina. "I know where Professor Silva lived. Maybe there's something at his house that will give us a new direction. He lived in town so we can head back way."

Thea looked over at her. "But he's not around anymore. I don't like the idea of just randomly going through someone's house-even if he is deceased."

Valentina shook her head. "Before he came to Britain to deal with the Elite, he lived with his wife. As far as I know, she's still there. We can just ask her."

Thea seemed to relax at that, but Jax didn't seem satisfied. "Why did he come to Britain to deal with the Elite?" he asked, falling into step with Valentina.

Valentina stopped, forcing everyone else to stop and look back at her. "I don't know exactly. When I asked, he said that he was responsible, but I don't know what he meant, and he refused to tell me anymore."

They pondered that the rest of the way back into town. Valentina led them down an alleyway to a group of what George supposed were meant to be townhouses, but to him, they looked more like churches.

The long building was apparently home to at least three or four different families. Valentina knocked on one of the doors. "Mrs. Silva?" she asked, when a middle-aged woman opened the door.

"Valentina?" The woman looked surprised to see her, but seemed to know her-that was a good sign. "I've told you to call me Gloria."

"It just seems weird seeing as your husband was my professor," Valentina muttered, as the woman gestured them inside. "And this must be Thea, George, and Jax," said Gloria, pointing each of them out in turn.

"Are you a seer as well?" George asked, surprised that she knew.

Gloria offered them a small smile. "No. Oscar told me about the three of you."

"Anyway," said Valentina, "I was wondering if any of Professor Silva's old stuff was here. He sent us here to Brazil to find out more about Thea's birth family, but so far we've run into nothing but dead ends."

Gloria nodded. "I don't know if there's anything that can help you, but you're welcome to go through what's there." She led them down the hall. "This was his office. I've started packing up his things," she said, indicating the boxes. "Let me know if you need anything." And she left them.


	5. Chapter 6: Thea

They had been searching for a while when Gloria poked her head back in. "I just remembered," she told them, "Oscar used to keep some things up in the attic. You would be welcome to search there as well."

"Okay," said Valentina brightly. "Why don't the guys search up there, and I'll stay down here with Thea?"

Thea narrowed her eyes. More talk about Jax? She was tired of being put in the middle of Jax and Valentina's relationship. Plus, George was hoping that she would go with him up to the attic, leaving Jax, Valentina, and Daniel down here. Unfortunately, it was Jax and Valentina that probably needed the alone time more than she and George did.

Please.

Thea looked up at Valentina before turning toward George. "I'll see you in a little while, okay?"

"All right," he said with a sigh before giving her a kiss. "We'll be upstairs if you need us." Then he and the other two guys headed out of the room.

Thea turned toward Valentina.

"Thank you," said Valentina, quietly.

"What's going on?" Thea opened another box, having finished with the one she had been going through.

Valentina didn't answer at first-she was focused on her own box. "I know that you think that the issues between Jax and me are just that-between Jax and me, but I don't think so."  
Thea shook her head, not liking where this was going. "What are you talking about?"

"He's never going to open up to me," Valentina said quietly, her gaze on her box as she took out items-knick knacks and other office supplies. "You're the one who's standing between us."

Thea narrowed her eyes. "I'm dating George-I'm in love with George."

Valentina shook her head. "I know. You're not the problem-he is. I don't know if Jax is in love with you or just territorial, but his life still very much revolves around you. I've tried talking to him about it, but he doesn't hear me."

Thea focused on her box. It was mostly old textbooks. Her initial gut reaction was that it just wasn't true, that Valentina's assertions were unfounded, but Jax was being overprotective, and even before Valentina, his relationships had never lasted. It had always just been the two of them-and then she started dating George, and everything had changed.

"You know what I'm talking about, don't you?"

Thea didn't look up, not at first. She knew what Valentina was talking about, but Valentina wasn't entirely right in her assumptions-but that didn't mean she was entirely wrong. Thea looked up. "He's not in love with me," she said softly. "But we spent a great deal of time being dependent on each other, him more than me I think, which might be surprising seeing as I was the one who had witnessed her parents being murdered. I didn't trust anyone after that, and I think, neither did he. He saw how broken I was after Liam's betrayal, and I think on some level, he was afraid of similar happening to him. He's never been in a serious relationship."

"Well, he never had to," Valentina pointed out, setting aside a few other items. "There's nothing in this box."

Thea bit her lip. She supposed that Valentina was right. While Jax had had other friends, other love interests, he had never really let anyone in. Valentina was the first he had ever really considered being serious about. "I think that he's falling for you, and that terrifies him." Thea was going to add to that, but underneath all the old textbooks in her box, was an old, worn journal with Oscar Silva engraved on the front. "I think I found something."

"Show me," said Valentina coming over to look at it, "but we're going to come back to that comment about him falling for me."

"I think it's a journal—Oscar's journal. Maybe he wrote down more about my great grandmother," Thea said quietly.

"Maybe," said Valentina. "Now, about your comment."

Thea sighed, inserting the small book into her back pocket. "I'm not sure I can explain it," she admitted. "I hear his thoughts, and he definitely has feelings for you. His feelings for me are sisterly-albeit, a bit territorial, but mostly, he sees himself as being my brother, but he also sees it as his job to protect me. Mostly, I let him think that because it was better than him trying to figure out what had happened with Orrin. It didn't occur to me that he was using that as a crutch so that he didn't have to let anyone else in."

"But yet, you were able to let George in."

Thea sat back on her heels and looked at Valentina. "It was a process, and it definitely didn't happen all at once. It took six months for me to really let him in, to allow myself to love him."

"It's been nearly that long for Jax and me." Valentina's voice sounded a little dejected after that, and Thea hated to hear it. Jax was her oldest friend, but she and Valentina were very quickly becoming close.

"I can't really speak to what it will take or how long for Jax to trust you." Thea lifted a few more books out of the box, but there didn't seem to be anything else of importance other than the journal. "I can only tell you how it was for me with George."

Valentina waved a hand as she discarded another box. "Well, then tell."

Thea sighed, moving onto another box as well. "Well, when we first met-or rather, became reacquainted-we originally met at Hogwarts-we did a lot of flirting. Honestly, there wasn't even anything physical, we really just flirted. We connected over secret passages at Hogwarts and..."

"And what?"

"And the fact that we had both lost someone. He hadn't gotten over losing his brother, and I hadn't gotten over what Liam had done. I was terrified of the Elite."

"Yeah, but you ultimately brought Fred back for George," Valentina pointed out.

Thea shook her head. "It didn't matter. He understood what loss felt like, so he still understood how I felt."

"So, I have to understand what it felt like to lose his parents?" Valentina asked. She shook her head. "How am I supposed to do that? My parents and siblings are alive."

Thea shrugged. "I don't know, but I think that if you want him to trust him, you have to be open with him. Tell him things that you don't tell most people-just be honest. Maybe if you let him in more, he'll open up to you, but I don't know."

"So, you want me to open up, be vulnerable, and you don't even know if it will work?" Valentina turned away to focus on another box.

"Valentina, relationships are about making yourself vulnerable. I may not have trusted George entirely, but I was always honest, and I made a habit of just telling him how I did feel-even if it wasn't what he wanted to hear. I honestly can't predict how Jax will react. He's my best friend, and yes, I am a legilimens, but no one other than me has ever really been that open with him, so I don't know how he'll react. His relationship with me was that he thought he was protecting me all the time, but you don't need his protection."

"You never did either."

Thea had to acknowledge that-it was true. For most of their friendship, she had let him believe he was protecting her, but in reality, it had been the other way around. "But he thought he was," Thea whispered. "He's had to reconceptualize our entire relationship...on who he saw himself as being. Maybe he needs to figure out who he is now before he can really build a relationship with you."


	6. Chapter 7: Jax

Jax didn't really care where he searched, as long as he was given something to do. He also didn't especially want to be in the same room as Daniel, but at least he wasn't left alone with Valentina. He still didn't know what to say to her.

"So, what does Valentina need to talk to Thea about?" George asked.

So much for getting away from the inquisition. "Probably what she always wants to talk to Thea about," said Jax, giving George a warning look.

"You mean you?" George teased him.

Daniel looked up at both of them confused. "Why would Valentina want to talk to Thea about you?" he asked Jax.

Jax scowled at George. Of course, now they had Daniel asking questions. He turned to Daniel. "Maybe you should just ask Valentina." He was her brother-let her answer his questions.

"I'm asking you," Daniel said with a shrug as he opened a box.

Jax shrugged, glaring at George's back. The red-head had made himself busy on the opposite side of the attic with a box. Again, he turned back to Daniel. "Valentina and I are just having a few issues we're trying to work out."

Daniel's face lit up. "So, you are her boyfriend!" he exclaimed.

Jax ran a finger through his dark hair. "No." He took a breath. "But I think she wants me to be." Technically, that wasn't the truth-he knew she wanted him to be her boyfriend, but she had lied to him. How could he trust her if she had lied?

"So, you don't want to be her boyfriend?"

Jax sighed. "We're still trying to work that out."

"Well, what is there to work out?" Daniel asked. "She likes you, and you like her. You do like her, don't you?"

Jax shot another glare at George, who was still ignoring them, before focusing on Daniel. "Yes, I like her, but it's not that simple."

"Well, why not?"

Jax sighed, before sitting on the floor and pulling a box towards him. "Look, this isn't really something I want to discuss with Valentina's kid brother."

"Well, why don't you discuss it with her?" Daniel asked.

That was a good question. "It's not that simple," he said again finally.

"Yes, it is," said Daniel. "Look, if you like her, you should talk to her. Why else would she be talking to Thea and not to you, if you were willing to talk to her?"

"Because talking doesn't work!" Jax snapped at him. He sighed. "Sorry. Look, we've tried talking, but we're not getting anywhere."

"Well, then maybe don't talk."

Jax looked over at him through raised eyebrows.

"Hey, I'm not a little kid," Daniel pointed out. "I'm 17, and I know things. Maybe you're talking too much."

Jax couldn't help himself-he laughed. "I don't know-I'll think about it." But somehow, he didn't think that would solve his trust issues with Valentina.


	7. Chapter 8: Thea

It was around lunch time when the boys came back down, and Thea and Valentina hadn't found anything else other than the journal.

"Did you find anything?" George asked Thea.

She pulled the small book out of her back pocket. "Oscar's journal," she said softly, before shrugging awkwardly. "I feel a little uncomfortable reading his private thoughts, but if there was going to be anything that leads us to my family, this is where we are likely to find it."

George took her hand and gave it a squeeze. "We'll find them," he told her.

She offered him a small smile that didn't quite meet her eyes. "I hope so," she said quietly.

"So, we were thinking that we would find a nice spot-Daniel said he knows a place," George explained, "and we can go eat lunch. Then you can look through that journal and see if it there are any clues in there."

Daniel led them down the cobblestone path. Thea could hear him talking with Valentina, but neither was speaking loudly enough to discern their words. Thea and George stayed toward the back, hand in hand, while Jax sort of stayed in the middle between the two pairs.

They continued down the path this way for a few moments when the trees opened up into a small, deserted beach just off the pier. Thea gasped at the view. "It's beautiful."

Valentina looked back over her shoulder at Thea with a grin. "Paraty is almost always beautiful in the summer. I'm glad you got to see it like this."

"I am, too," said Thea, but now she was looking at Jax. He had deliberately separated himself from the group. Keeping her expression neutral, she released George's hand and walked past Jax. "Talk to her," she muttered as she passed before finding a place to sit at one of the picnic tables just off of the beach. She motioned George over to join her.

Both George and Daniel headed over, while Jax and Valentina hung back. Good.


	8. Chapter 9: Jax

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p class="Paragraph SCXW38229360 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW38229360 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; color: #0000ff; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW38229360 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;"Jax was quiet for a long time, and Valentina just waited him out. "I don't always know what to say to you." /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW38229360 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW38229360" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW38229360 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW38229360 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; color: #0000ff; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW38229360 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;""I don't always know what to say to you either," Valentina said softly. "I know that I should have told you the truth, but I can't take that back or change it. Is there any way we can just go forward from here?" /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW38229360 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW38229360" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW38229360 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW38229360 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; color: #0000ff; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW38229360 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;"Jax turned toward her. "We can, but you can't pressure me into trusting you. It takes time." He took a breath. That was the issue more than the fact that she had lied-that she expected him to just get over it that quickly. "Why can't we just get to know each other, with no pressure?" /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW38229360 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW38229360" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW38229360 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW38229360 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; color: #0000ff; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW38229360 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;"Valentina nodded. "I'd like that. I didn't realize I was pressuring you." /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW38229360 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW38229360 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW38229360 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW38229360 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; color: #0000ff; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW38229360 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;"Jax was quiet again for a moment. "You were, but I was holding a grudge, too." /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW38229360 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW38229360 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW38229360 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW38229360 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; color: #0000ff; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW38229360 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;""What made you change your mind?" Valentina asked. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW38229360 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW38229360 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW38229360 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW38229360 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; color: #0000ff; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW38229360 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;"Jax reached for her hand. It was a small gesture, but considering how tense things had been between them, it was monumental. "I'm tired of being angry-it doesn't get us anywhere, and for once, we're actually talking honestly. I know we talked when we were at /span/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW38229360 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; color: #0000ff; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="SpellingError SCXW38229360 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: url('data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhBQAEAJECAP/8AAAAAAAAAACH5BAEAAAIALAAAAAAFAAQAAAIIlGAXCCHrTCgAOw=='); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; background-color: inherit;"Grimmauld/span/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW38229360 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; color: #0000ff; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW38229360 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;" Place, but we weren't really talking-it was just small talk."/span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW38229360 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW38229360 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW38229360 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW38229360 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; color: #0000ff; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW38229360 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;""Are you really all that hungry?" Valentina asked him. "Or do you maybe want to take a walk with me?" /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW38229360 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW38229360 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW38229360 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW38229360 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; color: #0000ff; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW38229360 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;"Jax looked over at the table where the others were eating before turning back towards her. "A walk is good." /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW38229360 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW38229360 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW38229360 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW38229360 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; color: #0000ff; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW38229360 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;"Valentina grinned. "Good." And she started to lead him away. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW38229360 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW38229360 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW38229360 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="EOP SCXW38229360 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW38229360 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW38229360 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="EOP SCXW38229360 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW38229360 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW38229360 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="EOP SCXW38229360 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div 


	9. Chapter 10: George

Jax and Valentina were gone for a long time. It wasn't so much that George begrudged them the time, but it meant that he and Thea were stuck with Daniel. He kind of wanted to follow Jax and Valentina's example—he wanted some alone-time with Thea, something he hadn't really had since they had arrived.

Thea looked over at him and rolled her eyes. "It hasn't been that long."

George looked over at her innocently. "Why don't we walk him home," he said quietly, nodding toward Daniel, "and then have some alone time ourselves."

Thea glanced over at him. Daniel was skipping stones into the water. She watched him for a moment before turning back to George. "Let's give them a little more time. I want to read a little of this journal before we go back."

George sighed, but turned to watch the water and give her time to read the journal, but the next thing he knew, she was tapping him on the arm.

"It's addressed to me," she said softly, showing him the first page.

Thea,

I know these books are a pale substitute for the conversations we should have had, conversations you should have had with your great-grandmother, but I fear that time is running out for me to tell you what you should know. Hopefully, these journals will be a sufficient explanation—or as close to sufficient as I can manage.

Oscar

George blinked. "Well, at least now you don't have to feel guilty about reading his private thoughts," he said quietly.

"And," Thea continued, "if what this says is true, then there are more of them."


	10. Chapter 11: Jax

div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW173109506" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW173109506 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #4471c4; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;"By the time that Jax and Valentina returned, Thea, George, and Daniel had gone. "What happened? Where are they?" Jax asked, hoping that Thea hadn't been kidnapped again. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW173109506" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW173109506 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #4471c4; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;"Valentina rolled her eyes. "They probably took Daniel home and went off to have some time alone." /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW173109506" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW173109506 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #4471c4; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;"Jax looked over at her. "They wouldn't do that." /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW173109506" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW173109506 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #4471c4; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;"Valentina just looked at him for a moment. "Really? Are you that naïve? Neither one of them may have complained when we decided the room arrangements, but they were both disappointed." /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW173109506" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW173109506 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #4471c4; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;"Jax turned away from her. "You don't know what you're talking about." /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW173109506" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW173109506 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #4471c4; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;""Don't I?" Valentina came around, so they were facing each other. "Look, how long did she stay with him last fall and even over Christmas?"/span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW173109506" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW173109506 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #4471c4; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;"Jax was starting to get the picture, even if he didn't want to. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW173109506" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW173109506 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #4471c4; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;"Valentina shook her head. "And it's okay. They're both adults, and they love each other. The only person who seems to have an issue with it is you." /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW173109506" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW173109506 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #4471c4; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;"For a moment, Jax was nodding along with her, but then he realized what she was saying. He shook his head in disgust. "We're not back on that, again, are we? I don't have feelings for Thea. She's my best friend—she's practically my sister." /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW173109506" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW173109506 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #4471c4; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;" "Thea agreed with you there." /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW173109506" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW173109506 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #4471c4; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;"Jax narrowed his eyes, sitting down at the picnic table. "That's what you were talking to Thea about this morning, wasn't it?" /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW173109506" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW173109506 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #4471c4; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;"Valentina took sat down beside him. "I was, and she even acknowledged that you were a bit overprotective and maybe using your relationship with her to avoid letting anyone else in." /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW173109506" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW173109506 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #4471c4; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;"Jax turned toward her. "She said that?" /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW173109506" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW173109506 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #4471c4; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;"Valentina nodded. "She did. Look, I'm not Liam," she told him. "I lied to you, yes, but I didn't lie to you to obtain power or to use you. I lied to you out of loyalty to my mentor—my mentor who just died." Valentina shook her head. "Thea told me that she and George bonded over their losses, and I worried that I couldn't understand you because I hadn't lost anyone, but I guess I have." She took another breath. "I think you want things to be black and white, for me to be able to say that I'll never lie to you again, but I can't tell you that. I don't believe in absolutes or black or white. I can tell you that I won't lie to you again without having good reason—say to protect your life or someone else's. Thea lied to you for years about the Elite to protect you, and yet, you aren't angry with her—unless you are, and it's just easier to be angry with me than it is to be angry with her." /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW173109506" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW173109506 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #4471c4; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;"For a moment, Jax just sat there in silence, taking all of that in. Was he angry with Thea? He had been, when he had first found out, but he had had to put that aside in order to help her deal with the Elite, but the Elite was gone—most of them dead, and the few that survived were in Azkaban. And where had that anger gone? It had just sat and festered with his worry for her, and then he had found out that Valentina had lied to him. Had she really just been a handy target for his anger?/span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW173109506" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW173109506 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #4471c4; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;"Valentina reached for his hand. "It's okay to be angry with her. She's not fragile or someone who needs to be protected. She can handle it now." /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW173109506" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW173109506 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #4471c4; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;"For a long time, they just sat there, and Jax took comfort in her hand in his. Maybe it was okay to be angry with Thea. She had made it clear time and time again that she didn't need him to protect her. Maybe it was time to have it out with her once and for all. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW173109506" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="EOP SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW173109506" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: center;"span class="EOP SCXW173109506 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
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	11. Chapter 12: Thea

div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW70034773" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #7030a0; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;"Instead of taking Daniel home (as Thea knew that George wanted to do), they headed back to Mrs. Silva's house. Thea reasoned that if there were more journals—since Oscar had said books, not book, they were probably at the house, and the house was closer than Daniel's house. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW70034773" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #7030a0; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;"Thea knocked on the door, a little more confident in what she was doing now that she had been during the rest of the search. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW70034773" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #7030a0; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;"After a moment, Gloria Silva answered the door. "Ah, Thea, come on in. How can I help you?" She gave a small wave as she saw George and Daniel behind her and stepped back to let everyone in. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW70034773" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #7030a0; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;""Mrs. Silva, have you ever seen this before?" Thea held out the journal, which Mrs. Silva took in her hands. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW70034773" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #7030a0; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;""Yes, of course," said Mrs. Silva. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW70034773" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #7030a0; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;""Do you happen to know where the others are?" /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW70034773" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #7030a0; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;"To this, Mrs. Silva just looked at her, puzzled. "But didn't Oscar give all three of them to you before he died?" /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW70034773" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #7030a0; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;"Thea frowned and shook her head. "No. Oscar and I never actually met in person—just in dreams. I found this one here, in a box." /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW70034773" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #7030a0; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;"It was Mrs. Silva's turn to frown. "He took the books with him to London, though I suppose that when he realized he couldn't get them to you in person, he arranged for them to be sent elsewhere. I'll take a look and see if I can find the others." /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW70034773" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #7030a0; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;""Thank you, Mrs. Silva," said Thea, and she, George, and Daniel headed out. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW70034773" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #7030a0; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;""I wonder why she didn't offer to let us search," said George as they started to head out of town and toward the Nova's house. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW70034773" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #7030a0; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;"Thea shook her head. "I don't know, but something isn't right. She was using occlumency against me." /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW70034773" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #7030a0; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;"George stopped in his tracks. "Is that common?"/span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW70034773" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #7030a0; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;"Thea shrugged. "Not really, but it happens. She didn't use occlumency against me the first time though. She was expecting us the first time, but she wasn't expecting the book to be there. She was almost...scared." /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW70034773" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #7030a0; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;""Perhaps she is worried that the /spanspan class="SpellingError SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: url('data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhBQAEAJECAP/8AAAAAAAAAACH5BAEAAAIALAAAAAAFAAQAAAIIlGAXCCHrTCgAOw=='); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; background-color: inherit;"Saci/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;" /spanspan class="SpellingError SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: url('data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhBQAEAJECAP/8AAAAAAAAAACH5BAEAAAIALAAAAAAFAAQAAAIIlGAXCCHrTCgAOw=='); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; background-color: inherit;"Perere/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;" is playing tricks," Daniel suggested. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW70034773" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #7030a0; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;"Thea turned towards him. "And what is the /spanspan class="SpellingError SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: url('data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhBQAEAJECAP/8AAAAAAAAAACH5BAEAAAIALAAAAAAFAAQAAAIIlGAXCCHrTCgAOw=='); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; background-color: inherit;"Saci/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;" /spanspan class="SpellingError SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: url('data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhBQAEAJECAP/8AAAAAAAAAACH5BAEAAAIALAAAAAAFAAQAAAIIlGAXCCHrTCgAOw=='); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; background-color: inherit;"Perere/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;"?" /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW70034773" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #7030a0; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;"Daniel shrugged. "He's a one-legged kid who plays pranks all the time. According to legend, he wears a smelly, red cap, and if you can catch it, /span/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #7030a0; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;"you /span/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #7030a0; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="ContextualSpellingAndGrammarError SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: url('data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhBQAEAPEDAABVzDNVzDNV/wAAACH5BAUAAAMALAAAAAAFAAQAAAIInC2QchYKQgEAOw=='); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; background-color: inherit;"gets/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;" a wish." /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW70034773" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #7030a0; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;"Thea and George exchanged glances. She could tell that they saw eye to eye on this one. It wasn't likely that the /span/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #7030a0; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="SpellingError SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: url('data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhBQAEAJECAP/8AAAAAAAAAACH5BAEAAAIALAAAAAAFAAQAAAIIlGAXCCHrTCgAOw=='); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; background-color: inherit;"Saci/span/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #7030a0; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;" /span/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #7030a0; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="SpellingError SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: url('data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhBQAEAJECAP/8AAAAAAAAAACH5BAEAAAIALAAAAAAFAAQAAAIIlGAXCCHrTCgAOw=='); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; background-color: inherit;"Perere/span/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #7030a0; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;" was behind all of this. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW70034773" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #7030a0; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;"It didn't take long for them to arrive at the Nova house where they thanked Daniel again for taking them to the old woman's house. Daniel invited them over for dinner later, but they declined and began the walk back into town. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW70034773" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #7030a0; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;"-/span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW70034773" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #7030a0; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;"When they finally arrived back at the hotel, Valentina and Jax were arriving back as well. "Where have you two been?" Valentina asked. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW70034773" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #7030a0; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;""We went back out to see Gloria Silva," said Thea. "It turns out that that book I found was a part of a set of three books." /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW70034773" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #7030a0; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;"Jax looked over at Valentina expectantly. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW70034773" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #7030a0; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;""Oh, all right," said Valentina. She reached into her pocket and handed Jax a few coins. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW70034773" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #7030a0; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;"Thea chuckled, but George could only stare at the pair of them completely puzzled. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW70034773" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #7030a0; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;""What's going on?" George asked. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW70034773" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #7030a0; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;""They bet that we were going to be off having some alone time," said Thea with a laugh. "Or at least Valentina did, hence why she lost. If it makes you feel any better," she added to Valentina, "the idea was proposed. Other things just took /span/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #7030a0; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;"precedence/span/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #7030a0; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;"." /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW70034773" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #7030a0; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;""See," said Valentina. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW70034773" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #7030a0; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;"Before the conversation could go any further, a stone came flying toward them, smashing into the plexiglass windows at their hotel. It wasn't enough to actually break the window, but it left a crack. There was a rustling in the bushes, and a cloaked figure ran for it. Jax and Valentina went after them, while George approached Thea, who was picking up the stone. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW70034773" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #7030a0; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;""You all right?" he asked her. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW70034773" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #7030a0; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;"Thea nodded, but her focus was on the stone. There was a bit of paper wrapped around it. "I think there's a note," she said, unwrapping the paper. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW70034773" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #7030a0; font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', 'Comic Sans MS_MSFontService', fantasy; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;"Steer clear of the Alexander house. People who look too closely end up dead. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', 'Comic Sans MS_MSFontService', fantasy;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW70034773" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #7030a0; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;""/span/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #7030a0; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;"So,/span/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #7030a0; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;" wait, now you're being threatened, just because you were looking for your great grandmother?" George asked. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW70034773" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #7030a0; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;"Thea frowned. "It means we're on the right track at the very least, but I'm not sure this is a threat. The way it's worded, it sounds more like a warning. Oscar did say that I had been sent to live with muggles because my life was in danger. Maybe, whoever this is, is trying to protect me, too. I need to talk to the person who threw the stone." /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW70034773" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="TextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #7030a0; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; line-height: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;""Well, it's a little late for that now, but I'm sure that Jax and Valentina will find them," said George. "In the meantime," he said, closing the distance between the two of them, "we're all alone." /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW70034773" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="EOP SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div  
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"  
p class="Paragraph SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-indent: 48px;"span class="EOP SCXW70034773 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 36px; font-family: Arial, Arial_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:480}" /span/p  
/div 


End file.
